The present invention relates to a food product transfer system by means of pickers.
More specifically, the invention relates to a transfer system of food products using pickers which collect the products moving along a line to transfer them to supports also running on transport lines.
Product handling systems and equipment of this type are known in the technique of canning plants, as they allow the automation of canning operations.
A plant of the above-mentioned type is the object of European patent 0 856 465 in the name of Gerhard Schubert GmbH.
The equipment object of European patent 0 856 465 belongs to the area of product handling systems by means of pickers for transferring the same from a feeding line to a support system.
Object of the invention, according to the Schubert patent, is to provide a process and related equipment for reducing the time lost for handling supports to be filled, without jeopardizing the plant efficiency.
This object is achieved, according to the patent disclosure, thanks to the fact that                supports and products move in counter-current; and        the support velocity is adjusted according to the products in movement.        
The above-mentioned Schubert European patent asserts the impossibility of transferring the disclosure of technological control measures for equicurrent transport systems to counter-current systems: as the diminishing of products on the conveyor belt, on one side, and the filling level of supports on the conveyor belt, on the other side, develop in a reciprocally inverse way.
Even if the equipment according to the Schubert patent provides a rational solution to the problem of product transfer, it has various drawbacks.
First of all, the handling of the transfer in counter-current, from the point of view of the concomitant optimisation of high productivity and minimum waste, both in terms of partially filled supports and non-collected products, appears rather problematical in the regulation, and cannot be used in the case of different products.
Another drawback of a logistic type is linked to the arrangement of the equipment and machinery which, in the case of the counter-current system, can create ties which may not fit in with the planimetry of the facility housing the plant.
A general objective of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a system for the transfer of food products by means of pickers, running in equicurrent, suitable for operating at high speeds, with minimum or null waste products.
Another objective of the present invention is to allow a simple control and management of the system.
Also within the objectives of the present invention, is the provision of a packaging plant which makes use of the transfer system of food products by means of pickers.